Subsidised essentials: OMS can’t keep up with queues
"I returned home empty-handed for the last two days. I am here again today to get some essentials. We were already struggling with daily expenses, but this time the prices have just gone out of reach."
Nasima Begum, in the advanced stages of pregnancy and carrying her two-year-old, was waiting for over two hours at the designated point in the capital's Kazipara Bus Stand for a TCB truck to arrive with daily essentials.
The 25-year-old defied her doctor's advice to avoid strenuous activities in her desperation to buy essentials at lower prices from a mobile shop of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). But the truck was nowhere in sight.
"I returned home empty-handed for the last two days. I am here again today to get some essentials. We were already struggling with daily expenses, but this time the prices have just gone out of reach," said Nasima, whose husband, a construction worker, is the breadwinner in the family.
Like Nasima, several thousand low-income people and middle-class residents in Dhaka have been scrambling to buy essentials at different open market sales (OMS) points and mobile trucks of the TCB.
OMS is a government price support programme for the low-income group to cushion the blow of rising food prices. The food ministry is running 1,948 OMS centres across the country -- of which 177 are in Dhaka city -- where rice and flour are sold. A total of 150 mobile trucks of TCB are selling food in Dhaka city where lentil, edible oils, onion and sugar are sold at subsidised prices.
However, the queues in front of the TCB trucks are getting longer than ever with many returning home empty-handed as the supply of goods remains inadequate.
Talking to The Daily Star, a number of people said their suffering was due to a flawed system.
"We had to wait for long hours under the open sky and there is often chaos whenever the truck finally arrives. If you are at the end of the long queue you might end up finding little left to buy as the demand is far greater than the supply," said Iftekhar Arefin Belal, a resident of Kazipara.
Belal, who earns a living renting out spaces of a small four-storey building he jointly owns with his brother, said that he felt embarrassed to purchase goods from the TCB truck.
"But I don't have any other choice," he said, adding that his earning was not enough to buy essential cooking items from the local kitchen market.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE
As mismanagement and manipulation keep on rising with the growing demand at different OMS centres, many have suggested reintroduction of ration cards so that they can get round-the-year support hassle-free.
Abdus Slam, a betel leaf shop owner, said until the early 80s, his family would get essentials like rice, sugar, wheat and oil through ration cards at subsidised prices every week.
"If the government reintroduces it, no one will be able to buy more than once. So those in need won't be deprived," he said.
SM Nazer Hossain, vice president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said the association had earlier suggested the government provide ration cards to the poor.
"If the government distributes food through ration cards, they would be able to maintain discipline which is not seen now. There are reports of chaos at different OMS points as more and more people are standing in the queue," he said.
Hossain said that a noticeable section of the middle-class people are lining up for OMS support to strike a balance between their income and the soaring prices.
"If this trend continues, the upper-middle-class people might also start purchasing the goods from the OMS programme. Our suggestion would be to issue ration cards."
He also suggested that the government import OMS food items instead of purchasing them locally.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said the government could consider expanding the OMS system. Ensuring the availability of the essentials is more important than anything else, he added.
The government can also give cash support to the vulnerable people as it did during the lockdown, he said.
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said the authorities have already increased the coverage area of OMS programme.
"We will not increase it further as the same person will take the product three or four times," he said.
About ration cards, he said, "There are different kinds of ration cards like Vulnerable Group Feeding Card and Vulnerable Group Development Cards. We also have plans to issue OMS cards."